If Seattle has already reached this level of performative nonsense, tomorrow’s “Pack City Hall” theatre production by CM Sawant and Socialist Alternative should be priceless.

“Today, a multicultural coalition of @JVPSeattle and allies put their bodies on the line…”

Risking it all so that several hundred mostly-tourists might not have to overpay for views they could get for free from atop nearby Queen Anne hill. Radical!

The fact that the Israeli right wing is opposed to a deal that releases 50 hostages tells you everything you need to know about the conflict. They don't really want the hostages released despite their moaning and rending of garments in that regard. They want the war to continue unabated so they can take the land, freshly purged of previous occupants.

Nice segue from a Snoop Dog fire pit commercial to the dog virus. Well played. I half expected Snoop to show up in there too lol

Why is everyone so involved in protesting against Israel when they could barely be concerned about Asaad murdering over 400,000 of his own people?

One two three FOUR!

Four Stranger endorsements for fascism, antisemitism, transphobia, lazy journalism, and billionaire adventurism via embedding tweets instead of doing literally anything else.

Not sure why Stranger writers can't stop doing it. Let's just phone it in with the usual editorial stance and say it's Joe Biden's fault.

@4 Perhaps because Israel is using our money and arms to kill their own people and Syria isn't.

@4 maybe because Hamas is using Gaza as human shields, as the videos of them storing Isreali hostages including small children inside hospitals show.

Release all the hostages.

@6 Oh, so that makes it ok that Asaad murdered 100's of thousands of people and used chemical weapons, and you could barely get out of bed to protest it? But if Israel is using some $ from the US to defend itself against a terrorist organization that murdered and kidnapped children and elderly and uses its own citizens as human shields........then Israel is evil and we must protest?

@2: “The fact that the Israeli right wing is opposed to a deal that releases 50 hostages tells you everything you need to know about the conflict.”

It tells you they don’t want to negotiate with hostage-taking terrorists. This is consistent with Israel’s stance, which requires Hamas to release all hostages as a necessary precondition for a cease-fire.

(I’m guessing your wild speculative jump to your conclusion was to get you past having to answer if negotiating with hostage-taking terrorists is a good idea?)

The absolute hypocrisy and performative displays are mind blowing. Palestinian citizens are innocent, I agree, but to vilify Israel is absolutely wrong. Protest Hamas. Protest Iran. Protest Hezbollah. But I cannot join these frothing hyped up protests against Israel.

The city of Veviers in Belgium has come out as neutral and wants nothing more to do with Israel. They are not exactly pro-islam, having a trial of Belgium islamic terrorists in the city. But the city decided to cut ties with Israel due to the attack on Palestine, ala BDS.

Hamas is the worst thing in the world. How bad must your PR be to lose to that?

@7: Hamas’ casualty figures have not been verified by any independent agency or news organization. Hamas’ casualty figures do not separate combatants from civilians. Hamas’ use of civilians as human shields has been extensively well-documented for years.

So yes, the Stranger has no choice but to querulously dispute every last detail of every bit of evidence Israel provides, while blithely trusting that all of Hamas’ figures are correct, all of the dead are civilians, and that absolutely none of those civilian deaths resulted from Hamas’ use of human shields.

The difference between Progressives and right-wingers seems mostly to be how many openly LGBQT+ persons each group has.

The "Aurora Horror"? Not buying it. How many of the deaths are nodded out midnight jaywalkers dressed in black?

@Max Solomon Drug-users crossing Aurora at night deserve to die in car accidents? What a hateful thing to say.

the Covid tests link is not valid. All the articles reference something from early September, even the article dated more recently doesn't give a link that works or updated info (if there is any to be had)

@14 You do not know what you are talking about. Do some research before posting ignorance. Asaad used chemical weapons.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/27/syrian-regime-found-responsible-for-douma-chemical-weapons-attack

"According to a spokesperson for the Health Ministry" ... that's where you lost me.

@10 No, I'm not defending Assad at all. (Or Hamas. Both are horrible.) But you asked a specific question and I spitballed a guess as to the answer. Take it up with the protesters themselves if you think I got their motivation wrong. But generally, people in the U.S. who care about peace and justice hold Israel to a higher standard because we subsidize it to an extent that we do no other country (except very recently Ukraine).

The constant drumbeat of support for Hamas and anti-Israel is making me question my support for The Stranger. I believe in supporting fact-based journalism, and this thing The Stranger is doing between Hamas and Israel is more like the Protocols of Zion reporting.

Please do try to keep a clear head and realize that EVERYONE IS LYING. Both HAMAS and Israel are lying. Stop believing what HAMAS is selling because you're doing a grave disservice to your readers.

@11 "We want the hostages released, but not THAT way!" Kind of like how the right wing supports everyone's right to free speech as long as they don't have to see or (heaven forfend) be momentarily inconvenienced by a protest.

It's adorable that you think that release of all hostages is a precondition of Israel-Hamas cease fire, when the news article being discussed specifically says that they're close to an agreement with only 50 hostages to be released.

Also, the last sentence of #2 is absolutely the goal, see (for example) here: https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-773682

@18: where did I say "deserve"? it is impossible to get to zero pedestrian deaths when pedestrians, addled or not, insist on taking unreasonable risks on a road like aurora.

how many times have you had to brake for a reckless jaywalker? i do it a couple times a month.

@28: Ok, so now some coalition of right-wing Israeli groups is now the entire “Israeli right wing,” and that they’re opposed both to negotiating with hostage-taking terrorists, and want release of all kidnapped hostages “tells us everything we need to know about this conflict.” I’m glad your world is so simple, even you can easily understand it.

(Your method would seem to jive well here at the Stranger, which claims to report the conflict whilst barely mentioning Hamas, and never, ever talking about human shields.)

Sawant == Hamas == Evil

@30 You've got me. "all you need to know about this conflict" was a bit of hyperbole. Let the one without sin cast the first stone. But it is a fact that [significant portions of] the Israeli right wing supported Hamas in the years leading up to October 7 because Hamas stood in the way of a Palestinian peace process. They didn't want a 2-state solution because that would forestall any further settler land grabs in the West Bank. We can agree to disagree about the relative sizes of the "most extreme" faction that want new settlements. Heck, Netanyahu is on board for rapidly expanding settlements in the West Bank, so it's not exactly a big surprise.

You did get really close to something important, though. You've disassociates the broader Israeli right wing from a subset of more-extreme members. As I read it, you don't hold the broader right wing responsible for the statements of its most extreme members. Let's just step back a moment. Do you think that same reasoning might be applicable to the broader population of Gaza? Maybe, just maybe, the broader population isn't responsible for the actions and statements of the most extreme? You're so very close to getting it, just take one more step!

@35 That is incorrect. Use your brain to think critically. False equivalence and binary thinking is the path to the dark side.

@36: I’m sure there are a multitude of differing viewpoints amongst the population of Gaza, none of which have the slightest impact upon the armed conflict between Hamas and Israel. Israel fights Hamas in Gaza because of armed incursions into Israel, which Hamas made from Gaza. Much of the population of Gaza is caught in the middle of this armed conflict. This has nothing to do with what anyone in “the broader population of Gaza” says, thinks, or believes.

Your belief this is all about words seems bizarre, to say the least.

@38 I was pretty sure you were one of the crowd that assumed that every Gazan supported Hamas and therefore deserved whatever they got from the IDF. You know, because of that one election a decade and a half ago that Hamas won with a plurality, not even a majority. But it's possible I was wrong.

If it’s not too much trouble, Natalie, could you at least tell us how many pedestrians have been killed on Aurora in the last year, or last five, or ten? But that would mean actually getting on the phone and doing what we used to call “reporting,” instead of cutting and pasting stories from the Seattle Times.

@39: Then you haven’t been reading my comments on this topic for the past month or so. I’ve tried to be as clear as I can about how Hamas nonconsensually uses the civilians of Gaza as human shields against the attacks Hamas has provoked from the IDF.

The sad truth is Hamas has promised this will continue until it or Israel is destroyed. We may as well have the IDF finish it now, horrible though the cost may be, then to let Hamas it drag out, again and again. As the very bleakest of Murphy’s Laws teaches us, “A horrible ending is preferable to horrors without end.”

Joe Biden is Scorpio, not Sagittarius.
He’s the sixth Scorpio president, more than any other sign.

It's sad that Claymation Studios is running out of clay. My brother worked there back in the 1980s. I love Wallace and Grommit.
Rest in peace, founder Will Vinton (1947-2018).

@16 and @29 Max Solomon: I find it disheartening that there is so much jaywalking on Aurora Avenue. That the main north-south arterial through Seattle has decayed into an unsafe free-for-all for homeless transients, drug dealers and addicts, as well as put ordinary people on graveyard shifts coming home from work in the wee hours of the day at serious risks. Do jaywalkers actually want to get hit by a moving vehicle? How many aimlessly roaming the streets are mentally ill and / or deliberately out to cause trouble?
Case in point: How many jaywalkers are like 30 year old Cordell Goosby, a convicted felon from out of state who fatally shot 34 year old restauranteur Eina Kwon, eight months pregnant, and injured her husband, waiting in their car at a stop light on Fourth and Lenora in Belltown? [Man pleads not guilty in fatal shooting of pregnant woman, Vonnai Phair, Seattle Times staff reporter, Law & Order, June 29, 2023]
Not like it was ever a crime-free city, but fatal shootings downtown and on Aurora Avenue were rare to unheard of back when I lived in Seattle. What the hell has happened over the last twenty-six years?
I miss the Seattle where I was born and once knew. How many among us would like to have it back?

@44 Great Blue Heron: Thank you for beating me to it. President Joe Biden is indeed, among Scorpios.
Sagittarius starts on November 22nd.

@45: the opiate crisis, which is nation-wide. @47 is wrong as usual.

@45: and @47 also seems unaware that Seattle just had an election and pretty much did that. which will do exactly jack to change the scale and scope of the opiate crisis and the attendant homelessness crisis.

@47 & @50: I must agree with Max Solomon @48 & @49, raindrop dear.
Go eat your paste before it hardens.

@48 & @49 Max Solomon: Sadly as I thought. The opiate crisis, and far too many addicts coming here from unfunded MAGAt states of confusion are largely to blame for the mess that Seattle and the PNW have become.